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CD of the Week
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EarthRiseArts e-newsletter, CD of the Week >>
"The audience really participates with this music, in a way I'm not really good at talking about. When I know it, I feel it." This sentiment seems true among all the Mamou Playboys, as expressed on the accompanying DVD documentary included with Steve Riley's 10th release, Dominos. In the 18 years since creating the band, Riley, musical conspirator/violinist/fiddle player David Greely and crew have been reinterpreting the Cajun, Zydeco and Creole folk styles of American roots music. What's most appealing about Riley's work, abundant on Dominos, is the communal nature in sharing musical ambitions. There is nothing inflammatory or demanding in these 15 songs (or the excellent film). To pursue southern American folk styles itself seems to be a reserved occupation, though, in truth, it took tragedy to awaken the national consciousness to New Orleans sounds. Riley is magnificent on accordion, violin and fiddle, switch hitting with Greely on vocals. Like all great regional music, balance is key: Riley is equally at home with melancholy, as in the passionate wisps of "Marie Mouri/Marie Has Died," as with the fiery strings of dance tunes, as on "Ardoin Medley" and the title track. Cajun music has a long history of struggle, since the French were forced to relocate from Nova Scotia by the British. The style they founded on the journey south found kindred souls in African Americans, developing the more soulful swing of Zydeco. Where the two met (and when segregation was over) dance houses lit up. Harking back to the opening quote, Dominos, Riley's image of the "cultural domino effect" of his Mamou homeland, this music is created to be experienced. In terms of production quality, however, few have touched this crew on album. 01/15/06 >> go there
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